Hanging Out Eggshells Kirsty Powell MCW 14883311

Hanging Out Eggshells

Kirsty Powell

MCW

2015

~ 2 ~

ABSTRACT

Hanging Our Eggshells is a New Zealand historical literary fiction novel, detailing the

lives of three generations of New Zealand rural women, each woman carries the scars

of a war that they never fought directly. A gripping fictional tale with an undertow of

historical fact that can be absorbed into the pores of the reader by osmosis, helping to

understand the grim lives of isolated rural women in 20th century New Zealand.

Protagonists include Kate from 1992, who sets out in search for her real

parents, alternating with the voice of her grandmother, Meredith, from 1932 who

travels from Wanganui to live in the remote farming community of the Mangapurua

Valley beyond The Bridge To Nowhere. Logistically sandwiched between is Meredith’s

16 year old daughter Jane (Kate’s mother), solely represented as a poetic voice,

written in 1958, from the viewpoint of a committed patient at Kingseat Psychiatric

Hospital.

This is a story of resilient women coping in isolated rural areas of New Zealand

with their war damaged men; a story of repeating patterns; a story of loyalty without

reward; and a story of how reality and make-believe become welded together to make

our pitiless myths more palatable for the generations who follow. A story of ‘hanging

out eggshells’.

The Exegesis that accompanies the text explores a number of the issues that

exercised my mind in the writing of this book: to understand the literary concept of the

hero’s journey as it differs from a heroine’s journey; how best to overlay fiction on a

strong and well documented historical story; how to successfully use a poetic voice in a

work of prose; how to utilise a metafictional structure in the hands of an unreliable

narrator; how to structure a work with multiple protagonists; and how to leave the

reader with hope despite a bittersweet ending. Also, how to best achieve all this in the

8 months allocated to the task by applying ergonomic principles to the writing process.

Let the work begin!

~ 3 ~

Table of Contents

Attestation of Authorship ................................................................... 4

Acknowledgements ............................................................................ 5

Dedication........................................................................................... 6

Novel .................................................................................................. 7

Chapter Notes ................................................................................. 190

References ...................................................................................... 196

Exegesis .......................................................................................... 198

References ...................................................................................... 216

~ 4 ~

Attestation of Authorship

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of

my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by

another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor

material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other

degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning.

Signed:

~ 5 ~

Acknowledgements

While Hanging Out Eggshells is a work of fiction, I have tried to maintain it within an

accurate historical context and I have located the fiction within accurately depicted

geographical New Zealand landscapes and locations. Particularly the Mangapurua

Valley, a remote location off the middle reaches of the Whanganui River which was

settled by 36 WW1 Return Serviceman and their families who lived there between

1917 and 1943.

I would like to thank the descendants of the original settlers of the

Mangapurua Valley who shared their family’s memoirs and memories. Special thanks

to Wayne Bettjeman, Muriel Roberts (nee McDonald) and Tom Mowat, who met with

me and shared their stories.

I have depicted the families of the original settlers to the valley as accurately as

I can. I have used some of the original settlers as secondary characters in this fiction.

A summary of their history and my sources are detailed in the chapter notes at the end

of the novel. The characters of Kate West, The West Family, Meredith Stanley (nee

Innes), Jane Stanley, Ursula, Ian Dunn, Mr Dunn, Eric Heng, Toby Dougherty, Iris

Dougherty, Joseph Ogden, Mrs Ogden, Beanstalk, Mac and their families are entirely

fictional and bare no relationship to any living person.

I acknowledge quotes and or reference to the following authors: JM Barrie

(Peter Pan and Wendy), Enid Blyton (The Magic Faraway Tree), Hans Christian

Anderson (The Little Mermaid), James K Baxter (High Country Weather, Haere Ra),

Janet Frame (An Autobiography), Keri Hulme (The Bone People), Arthur Bates (The

Bridge to Nowhere) and Maureen Murdock (The Heroine’s Journey).

I would also like to thank my family and the folk who helped me with the

writing: my supervisor, Bianca Zander, and her fellow lecturers at Auckland Institute of

Technology: Siobhan Harvey, James George and Mike Johnson. My long suffering

critical readers: Rachel Houlbrooke, Suzanne Takiwa, Wendy Davidson, Michele Laing,

Basil Connor, Alison Schofield, Jacquie McRae, Talia Henry and Michael Giacon. Also,

my proofreader Odette Singleton-Wards.

Thank you one and all!

~ 6 ~

Dedication

To Witi Ihimaera, who gave me the confidence

to get started on this journey, and told me to twist the knife harder.

~ 198 ~

Exegesis

Hanging Out Eggshells

1. The Motivation for Writing – Hanging Out Eggshells

In 2014 I completed a paper for the Diploma of Creative Writing with Witi

Ihimaera as my lecturer at Manukau Institute of Technology. It was an inspiring course

on the topic of ‘Memoir’. Witi, at this time, was finalising his own memoir, Maori Boy

(Ihimaera, 2014) and he shared parts of his journey with us. The goal for our course

was to write a 3000 word piece, a creative memoir in the pastiche format, defined in

this context as: ‘An incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken

from different sources: hodgepodge.’ 10

Witi challenged us to use a theme or motif to give structure and hold the

hodgepodge of our memoirs together.

As a child of the 1960’s growing up on an isolated sheep and cattle farm in the

North Wairarapa, I titled my piece Wool Girl and used the act of shearing a sheep as

the theme to structure the piece. I learnt several things as part of this exercise: how

easy and enjoyable it is to write about something you know well; how sensuous the act

of shearing really is; how resilient, matter-of-fact and knowing rural children are about

life, death and the ways of the world compared to those with a city upbringing; and

how my colleagues delighted in this piece of writing.

From discussions with my class it became clear to me that the lives of New

Zealand rural women over the last three generations have not been clearly explored in

novel form. A germ of an idea was born which I shared with Witi. His response to me

was that I needed to get on and write a novel before I got too old…. I took his

comment as the compliment intended, but I also took the hint. ‘Hanging Out

Eggshells’ is the result of Witi’s challenge to me.

This is also the year that New Zealand’s consciousness about WW1 has been

heightened as we celebrate 100 years since the 1915 landing at Gallipoli. There has

been an outpouring of memories, with thousands attending ANZAC parades and an

explosion of literature about this campaign. But what of the women who stayed

10 OxfordDictionaries@Oxford University Press

~ 199 ~

home, what was the effect of war on women as damaged men returned home, or

didn’t return home in the years that followed?

My goal: to write a historical New Zealand literary fiction novel, detailing the

lives of three generations of New Zealand rural woman, each woman carrying the scars

of a war that they had never fought in directly. A gripping fictional tale with an

undertow of historical fact that can be absorbed into the pores of the reader by

osmosis, helping to understand the grim lives of isolated rural women in 20th century

New Zealand.

A secondary, but no less compelling goal: to write a sensuous sex scene to be

played out in a woolshed and to conceal a murder, by pressing the unfortunate into a

bale of wool. Things that only a ‘Wool Girl’ can write about.

When I shared my idea with Witi, he suggested that I not try to write an epic

novel at first attempt.

At Witi’s advice, I narrowed my scope to write the stories of two generations of

women. I chose the alternating voices of Meredith from the 1930’s and Kate her

granddaughter from the 1990’s. Logistically sandwiched between these two, I have

added Jane from the 1950’s, solely represented as a poetic voice.

It is a trans-genre piece with touches of poetry, quoted history and literature.

A pastiche style, which my sister has helpfully labelled as ‘Chook Literature’. Possibly a

small hen sitting within the Literary Fiction Genre, (eggs are used as a motif in this

book).

This exegesis addresses the following subjects which have exercised my mind as part of

the creative and academic process of writing this novel:

To understand the literary concept of the Heroine’s Journey as it differs from

the Hero’s Journey with examples from previous New Zealand historical fiction

and how these insights have impacted on the final form that ‘Hanging Out

Eggshells’ has taken?

To explore the works of other New Zealand novelists who have chosen a

historical setting. My goal to understand how best to overlay well documented

historical fact with the fairy dust of fiction to create a fast-moving, readable

novel; how to find the balance between staying true to aspects of history while

not upsetting the descendants of real life people; and how the landscape

~ 200 ~

inevitably becomes a character leading to my consideration of postmodern

realism.

To explore works of fiction and creative non-fiction that have successfully

incorporated a poetic voice amidst prose and used paratext quoting from other

writers.

How to deal with a metafiction structure, including the juxtaposition of the

conscious and unconscious in the hands of an unreliable narrator who

measures up multiple endings.

To review how the chosen narrative structure has effected plot development

and the difficulty of endings. How to leave the reader with hope and resolution

with a non-happy ending.

To understand the craft of writing from an ergonomic viewpoint - both the

process and practical aspects. How to create an optimal work environment and

a personal timetable that is conducive for a first time writer to work ‘in the

zone’ in a time-effective and pain-free manner, while maintaining a busy life

away from the keyboard.

Hanging Out Eggshells – a synopsis

‘I drag myself up to my full height and glare down at Ursula across the kitchen table. “Look at me, I’m six foot two without my shoes on and you know damn well my feet are size 12. Just call me Big Bird from the nuthouse. What if my mother was a madwoman, what if my father turns out to be a monster? Would you want kids?” I slump back down on the couch.’

Kate, at 32 is sitting on a fence that resembles a couch. Until now, Kate has

avoided knowing the details of her adoption from Kingseat Hospital. Prodded by

her flatmate Ursula, Kate finally sets out to find the truth. Why was her mother,

Jane, incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital as a pregnant 16 year old; why was

her grandmother buried at Jerusalem after her death in a house fire; what is her

family connection to the Bridge to Nowhere in the deserted Mangapurua Valley

and the identical Bridge to Somewhere near Whangamomona. Which pieces of

history will she choose to pass onto her own daughter, not yet born?

~ 201 ~

This is a story of resilient women coping in isolated rural New Zealand with

their war damaged men; a story of repeating patterns; a story of loyalty without

reward; and a story of how reality and make-believe are welded together in the

pitiless myths we choose to make palatable for future generations.

2. Beyond The Hero’s Journey

When I first discussed my plot ideas for Hanging Out Eggshells with Witi

Ihimaera he commented that I was writing a Hero’s Journey.

This took me to the books to discover exactly what he meant. I was pleased to

find that the Hero’s Journey as first detailed by Joseph Campbell is considered a time

honoured structure that has existed in mythology and literature since story telling

began. At first this circular model seemed ideal for my task.

“When it comes to structuring timeless stories, the hero’s journey is widely accepted as the

ideal template for a fictional construct. The hero’s journey, according to many sources, is a structure that is implicit in our makeup – and has therefore become interwoven into the fabric or our story telling since the invention of writing.” (Parnell, 2014, Loc 81).

Keeping the circle of the hero’s journey in mind, I began to write. However, I

had a problem. My protagonist Kate West was not a hero, she was a reluctant heroine

who did not fit the masculine mythological model. Likewise her friend Ursula was not

playing the role of faithful companion in the hero’s journey style. Murdock (2013) had

also pondered this dilemma and was fortunate to be able to discuss this with Joseph

Campbell; I find his response illuminating:

“My desire to understand how the woman’s journey relates to the journey of the hero first led me to talk with Joseph Campbell in 1981. I knew that the stages of the heroine’s journey incorporated aspects of the journey of the hero, but I felt that the focus of female spiritual development was to heal the internal split between woman and her feminine nature. I wanted to hear Campbell’s views. I was surprised when he responded that women don’t need to make the journey. ‘In the whole mythological tradition the woman is there. All she has to do is to realise that she’s the place that people are trying to get to. When a woman realises what her wonderful character is, she’s not going to get messed up with the notion of being a pseudo-male.’1 (Murdock, 2013, Loc 306)

Murdock found this answer to be unsatisfying and looked to develop her own

model of the heroine’s journey. A model that better reflected the journey that women

~ 202 ~

make who are not satisfied to just be “there”. Her model incorporates ten stages

which are summarised below:

Separation from the feminine (a rejection of the feminine as defined as passive, manipulative or non-productive, often rejecting a mother figure as part of this process);

Identification with the masculine and gathering of allies (orientating for success in a male dominated world by adopting a patriarchal focus);

Road of trials meeting ogres and dragons (succeeding against the odds);

Finding the boon of success (conquering but feeling empty with the victory);

Awakening to feelings of spiritual aridity death (disillusionment, despair. While she has succeeded she has lost the relationship with her own feminine nature);

Initiation and descent to the Goddess (a period of wandering, grief or rage which may be viewed by the outer world as depression);

Urgent yearning to reconnect with the feminine (may manifest as spending time with nature, becoming more aware of natural seasons and cycles);

Healing the mother/daughter split (gradual healing of the wound that occurs with the initial rejection of the feminine, which may or may not also include a healing of an actual relationship between mother and daughter);

Healing the wounded masculine (reducing the requirement for applause from a male dominated model of success);

Integration of masculine and feminine (incorporating self-nurturing aspects into life, this may include a lifestyle closer to nature, a move to seek marriage and child bearing that requires voluntarily dropping some aspects of the patriarchal focus.

Murdock goes on to say

“It appears to me that the intense focus on feminine spirituality at this time is a direct result of so many women having taken the hero’s journey, only to find it personally empty and dangerous for humanity. Women emulated the male heroic journey because there were no other images to emulate; a woman was either “successful” in the male-orientated culture or dominated and dependent as a female. To change the economic, social, and political structures of society, we must now find new myths and heroines” (Murdock, 2013, Loc 436)

So is it the Hero’s Journey or the Heroine’s Journey which is reflected best in

the journey of fictional heroines in modern literature? And which is the most

satisfying to read? As my novel Hanging Out Eggshells has a strong historical New

Zealand setting I limited my research to New Zealand historical novels which have a

strong factual historical basis.

~ 203 ~

Pattrick (2003) captured the hearts of New Zealand readers with her tale of a

bleak 19th Century coal mining settlement in her novel The Denniston Rose. The

protagonist, Rose, is a five year old child who against the odds manages to survive the

harsh nature of her life, runs away from her mother and returns to Denniston which is

to become her home. On the surface, this follows the model of the Hero’s Journey.

However, when read in conjunction with the sequel Heart of Coal (Pattrick, 2004) the

picture is different. Rose is now a young woman who uses her masculine

characteristics to succeed in a man’s world; she achieves a measure of success which is

not on her terms or deeply satisfying. She falls into deep depression/despair, returns

to Denniston where she reconciles with her adopted mother and finds a lifestyle which

is a combination marriage, nurturing a family and continuing her masculine pursuits.

The novel leaves her as a self-contained and satisfied eighty nine year old women

surveying her world from the top of the Denniston railway incline. When read

together these books do form a Heroine’s Journey which is, in my opinion, a more

satisfying read than the first book alone.

Another similar example where the initial story could be considered a Hero’s

Journey and the sequel rounds the story out to a Heroine’s Journey is the combination

of Once Were Warriors (Duff, 1990) and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (Duff,

1996). In the first book, Beth follows a hero’s journey, overcoming the passive nature

of her life with Jake, turfing him out and making a new life for herself. When

combined with the sequel we see both Jake and Beth undertaking aspects of the

heroine’s journey, Beth reunites with her family and roots. But it is Jake’s story that

really fits this model, Jake goes through a period of depression/despair where being

the pub hero is not all it was, finds a new family of kindred friends through a return to

nature/earth with the Douglas men, hunting and playing rugby. Jakes also reconciles

with the more feminine side of his personality, cleaning up his house, buying flowers

for the vase, and putting sheets on his bed for the first time.

Murdock (2013 Loc 345) points out that her Heroine’s Journey model can be

equally applied to journeys of either gender who are seeking to balance the masculine

and feminine aspects of their lives.

The Parihaka Woman (Ihimaera 2011) takes the reader on a satisfying full circle

of the Heroine’s Journey model within one book. The protagonist, Erenora, takes on

the psychological and physical appearance of a man to go on a journey to find, save

~ 204 ~

and seek revenge for her husband, Horitana. She then returns to a simple balanced

life and is seen at the end of the book as a mature woman tending her fields with her

family around her.

The Book of Secrets (Kidman, 1987) is the closest read that I have found to my

own novel. This book is historically based following three generations of women from

the Highlands of Scotland via Nova Scotia to finally settle in Waipu, New Zealand. It

follows the historical journey of the real life character of Norman McLeod who led a

religious group to New Zealand in this manner. The main characters in the story are

fictional. The book details the point of view of all three woman using both first person

and third person. The book follows the Heroine’s Journey to the eventual resolution

and death of Maria McClure.

My consensus is that the Heroine’s Journey as a model is a more satisfying read

than a Hero’s journey when considering a woman protagonist.

Has this influenced my writing in Hanging Out Eggshells? My plot line altered

after reading Murdock. Ursula’s role in the story moved from the faithful companion

in a Hero’s Journey to initially the role of a mother-like figure from which Kate must

break away (becoming estranged and later reconciled as the love of Kate’s life,

although separated by Ursula’s death). Kate’s decline and rise from despair was not

part of the original plot, nor did I plan a Heroine’s Journey ending. A final flash-

forward chapter was added, advancing twenty years to show that Kate does achieve a

balance between feminine and masculine qualities and brings together a satisfying

conclusion on her own terms in the style of the Heroine’s Journey model.

3. Getting The History Right

Hanging Out Eggshells is partially set in the Mangapurua Valley which is the

home of the historic Bridge to Nowhere, a well-known landmark and tourist attraction

on the Whanganui River. This is a piece of New Zealand History which is very well

documented. The valley was settled by 36 WW1 Return Soldier Lessees who moved

into the valley from 1917 to 1920 and had all moved out again by 1943 when the

Government closed the road to the valley. I was drawn to the well documented

accounts of the settlers lives (Bates, 1981) and the remarkable recollections of some of

~ 205 ~

their children, still alive, but now in old age. My dilemma was how to use this rich

material without offending the families who lived through this history.

Do I use just the setting and fictionalise all the characters as Pattrick had done

in Denniston Rose? Pattrick chose a real historic setting but created an entirely

fictional story. She loosely based her characters on settler archetypes but changed the

names.

Do I closely follow a factual historic story but fictionalise both the characters

names and place names, but write in a manner that allows the reader to clearly see

through the veneer? An example of this is Carl Nixon’s novel The Whale and the Virgin

where the author outlines in the prologue the wish of his historical source not to be

identified and carries on to set his story in the fictional ‘Mansfield’ which is easily

identified by the reader to be Christchurch, New Zealand (Nixon, 2013).

Do I use real history where the protagonists are real historical figures using

their real names and as much fact about them as is available in history? Fiona Kidman

does this cleverly in her historical tale The Captive Wife which is a retelling of a real

event from early New Zealand with the co-operation of the descendants (Kidman,

2005).

Or do I use a background of real secondary characters, real events and real

settings and overlay this with fictional main characters? Ihimaera achieves a seamless

story in The Parihaka Woman using this technique where the reader enjoys a history

lesson while being carried along by a gripping story (Ihimaera, 2011).

The Landing (Pattrick, 2008) is also based on the historic Whanganui River area.

Pattrick has placed her main fictional characters over a strong historical background

using real figures such as Mr Hattrick who ran the early steam boat service. Kidman

(1987) uses a similar structure in The Book of Secrets.

Of interest to me, Ihimaera has included a section of historical notes at the end

of the story; Pattrick has inserted historical notes at the start of some chapters and a

further section of historical dates at the end of the story; and Kidman has added a

preface detailing how she has combined historical and fictional characters.

Hanging Out Eggshells includes real settings and real historical characters in some

secondary roles and fictionalises all the main characters. There are also acknowledged

historical quotes embedded in places in the text of the novel. I have followed the

~ 206 ~

example of The Parihaka Woman and Landings by adding a final section headed up

‘Chapter Notes’ to fully inform the reader where historical fact stops and fictions

starts.

Over the course of the writing, as my characters become more consumed by

their fictitious worlds, grounding the story through accurate depiction of real

landscape became increasingly important to me. I visited all my locations throughout

New Zealand to ensure an accurate description. With interest I read Scanlon (2008)

who describes the postmodern realism used to advantage by authors such as Annie

Proulx who visited her Newfoundland setting 8 times while researching her novel The

Shipping News. This allowed Proulx to apply fictional characters effectively in realistic

and tangible landscapes and situations.

‘Proulx’s work ultimately demonstrates the desire for contemporary realist fiction through its production, form and reception, while also exposing some of the politics implicit in contemporary readings of and for realism.’ (Scanlon 2008)

My goal, in some small way to emulate the writing style of Annie Proulx in this

regard at least.

4. Infiltrating Poetry And Paratext Into Prose

Is there a place for poetry in prose? Green writes:

“Some novelists aspire to the poetic; others conspire against it, like Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, poems extend the work’s themes and enhance its sensibility…… From antiquity on, a quite different possibility has also tempted prose writers: Satire. Rather than co-existing harmoniously, poetry and prose may form what Mikhail Bakhtin (1968) called “an oxymoronic combination” in which the sublime is brought low by an “inappropriate word”. In such combinations, poetry can be used to signal a “poetic” view of life, which the surrounding prose then subject to scrutiny and ‘parody.” (Green, 2012).

My aim is that the poetry in Hanging Out Eggshells will fall within Green’s

former category of enhancing the work, rather than the latter category of satire.

However it seems examples of the use of poetry in prose as satire are easier to find in

literature than examples of enhancement. An example of the latter is the use of

~ 207 ~

poetry by Tolkien in The Hobbit where the elves and goblins are heard to sing stirring

little rhyming ditties (Tolkien, 2001). It was not my intention to emulate this model.

I cast my net wide to find poetry that enhanced. Farrell’s masterful

juxtaposition of poetry in her creative non-fiction work The Broken Book (Farrell, 2011)

was illuminating for me. I admire the way she used her poems about the Christchurch

Earthquake to create clever earthquake-like crevices. The poems crept up on me

unexpectedly, just as earthquakes do, between her essays. This gave the book an

entirely different poignancy compared to the book she would have produced if she had

stuck to her original brief which was to write a memoir-style book on the subject of

walking.

But what of fiction? I looked for examples where poetry is embedded into a

novel. Pale Fire (Nabokov, 2012) is a metafictional work which includes a 999 line

poem written by the deceased fictional character John Shade with a foreword, an

index and extensive notes written by his neighbour Charles Kinbote. It is Kinbote’s

interpretation of the poem which creates the story.

‘Nabokov finds ways of refluxing the course of traditional narrative by allowing the intricate and forceful powers of language to flow into sensible plots and sometimes madly inspired visions those doubling and merging of syllabic and galactic orders that the poet Shade calls ‘possibilities’.’ (Seidel 1984, pg. 837).

While enjoying the juxtaposition that the poetry adds to the piece, I found the

structure of Pale Fire, which requires the reader to constantly switch between the

poem and the notes, a difficult format to follow. I preferred the simple structural style

of The Broken Book where the poems sit in the body of the text used as transitions

between disparate pieces.

A work I admire is The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Fowles 1969) which

includes poems written by the author and pieces quoted from greats such as Tennyson

and historical information as paratext in footnotes and epigraphs. Bowen (1995)

comments ‘that the paratextual elements do not always contribute to the effectiveness

of the novel and often act to unseat the authority of the narrative voice.’ My learning

is that such devices can be interesting but should be used sparingly. In Hanging Out

Eggshells in my descriptions of the Mangapurua valley I allow myself only two direct

~ 208 ~

quotes (Hanging Out Eggshells, pages 93 and 94) from Bates (1981) which I hope are

both of interest and relevant to the reader.

Possession (Byatt, 1990) has 1700 lines of poetry written by Byatt on behalf of

her characters as well as other literary quotes. I enjoyed this work which has some

similarities to my own novel. Both works feature a modern protagonist seeking

information about a previous generation now dead. The book connects the two

generations with the use of repeating patterns.

“Possession, in fact, teases its reader with such ‘repeating patterns’ of major and minor motifs, which in turn, produce a variety of textual pleasures.” (Hennelly, 2003, pg 442).

In Hanging Out Eggshells I have enjoyed playing with a wide range of motifs

including work tasks, ie washing, cooking and shearing. As well as objects, eggs,

acorns, characters named after fairy tale characters, peach trees, native birds, flowers

and even the smell of lavender on handkerchiefs to connect the two story lines and the

poems together. My goal was to enhance the ‘textual pleasure’ for the reader.

In all the works mentioned above, I enjoyed how the interpretation of a poem

depends on the context in which the reader finds the poem, which in turn is controlled

by the author when used as a transition device to enhance the material that the author

has chosen to place on either side of the poem. Lecturer Siobhan Harvey (2015) used

the masterful writing style of Cloud Street (Winton, 1991) to demonstrate how

repeated words, ideas and motifs can be used to help the reader connect across

transition points. This inspired a 3rd draft review of my transitions creating motifs that

carry the reader across chapter transitions, i.e. droplets connecting the 9th and 10th

chapter.

Hanging Out Eggshells has three concurrent story lines with the voice of Jane

represented as poems she has written in the late 1950’s while a teenage patient at a

psychiatric hospital. I enjoyed placing the poems to create relevance and transition

between the story of both her mother Meredith in the 1930’s and her daughter Kate in

the 1990’s. It is my hope that the poems enhance the reader’s enjoyment and

understanding of the story. Several of my critical readers at second draft recounted

how they had to go back and read the poems they skipped to get a full sense of the

story line of Jane. I am unrepentant about this, at third draft I tried to embed the

~ 209 ~

poems more deeply. My goal that future readers will read them on their first trip

through the book.

5. Metafictional Structure, Taming the Unreliable Narrator and the Possibility of

Multiple Endings.

During the writing of Hanging Out Eggshells I found my protagonist, Kate,

evolving into an unreliable narrator who seemed intent on acting as the commenting

narrator of the tale for her unborn child, playing with fantastic alterations to the story

to create an atonement of sorts following the death of Ian and mulling on possible

stories endings. I took note of Witi’s (2014) comment to me “Kirsty, characters don’t

always tell the truth.” I was inspired by the deft manner that the unreliable narrator is

handled in Atonement (McEwan 2010) where the reader is offered two endings and

only late in the piece comes to understand that the protagonist, Briony, has rewritten

the real story as ‘fiction’ to avoid giving her readers a “pitiless” ending and instead

gives her sister and lover the ending they deserved and Briony the atonement that she

craves. Another example I enjoyed was Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life where the

reader is tantalised by multiple possible endings throughout the book (Atkinson 2013).

The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Fowles, 1969) offers three separate endings

for the story. Smith (1988) has studied the final drafts that Fowles wrote and

concludes that Fowles was struggling with how to conclude his book and switched the

order of his endings at the request of his wife and the advice of his editor. Originally

the unhappy ending where Sarah and Charles do not reunite came first, followed by

the happy ending where they do. The final published story has the happy ending first

after which the clock is turned back 15 minutes and the unhappy ending prevails.

Likewise, Kate my protagonist weighs up possible endings.

Another layer that I hadn’t initially planned in my first draft came at second

draft with my realisation that the fixation with a fairy tale character by both my

characters Meredith and Jane was similar to the hallucination of schizophrenia. Carl

Jung, with a background as a psychiatrist, became interested in the concepts of the

conscious versus the unconscious.

‘The concept of the Collective Unconscious: “... becomes activated and a compulsiveness appears, which, like an instinctual drive, gains its way against

~ 210 ~

all reason and will, or else produces a conflict of pathological dimensions, that is to say, a neurosis.”’ (Jung, 1976, page 66).

This led me to further develop my protagonist, Kate, as an unreliable narrator

particularly regarding her imaginary ongoing relationship with Ursula after Ian’s death

as a hallucination/voice in Kate’s head. Likewise Kate’s partially imagined relationship

with Eric, her doctor, is an example of transference as described by Jung.

‘In the course of treatment the patient transfers the father-image to the doctor, thus making him, in a sense the father, also making him a substitute for the man she cannot reach. The doctor therefore becomes both a father and a kind of lover – in other words, an object of conflict. In him the opposites are united, and for this reason he stands for a quasi-ideal solution… for the patient he seems like a saviour or a god.’ (Jung, 1976, pg 73).

Fight Club (Palahniuk, 1996) the novel (unlike the movie) is an interesting

example where the protagonist, who isn’t named, is an unreliable narrator who

gradually over the course of the book is revealed as having a mental health problem.

By the mid point of the book the reader learns that Tyler, the antagonist, is not real

but part of the protagonist’s split personality. Likewise in my story at second draft I

chose to gradually reveal Kate’s mental health status through her unreliable accounts

of her imagined interaction with Eric, and Ursula’s imagined second funeral. Feedback

at second draft was that these cues were not enough for literal readers to discover

that Kate is an unreliable narrator until the end of the book, resulting in their

disengagement with the story. At third draft, rather than Kate’s mental status being a

surprise at the end, I have added additional background and foreshadowing sufficient

to give literal readers additional opportunities to guess outcomes that may or may not

occur. My aim to keep literal readers better engaged in the story right to the end.

6. Structuring My Story

In Hanging Out Eggshells, my protagonist, Kate, begins Chapter 1 in the first

person and warns the reader that the story will be disjointed.

“I make no apologies for the disorder in this story.”

~ 211 ~

In my first draft I followed the structure of Moriarty who tends to write in

short, sharp snatches jumping between points of view. For example her book Big Little

Lies (Moriarty 2014) has 84 chapters, some only one or two pages long, written from

the point of view of multiple characters.

The feedback on my first draft was that my structure was too disjointed,

making my story difficult to follow. In the second draft I chose a structure more similar

to The Shipping News (Proulx, 1993). While Proulx still has 39 chapters, these are

divided down into shorter cameos with a knot motif depicting a change in action, time

or place within a chapter. I have adopted a similar approach, reducing my chapters to

a total of 13, achieving for the reader a story which is easier to follow, but maintaining

my chosen disjointed structure of small soundbites separated by eggs - oOOs in the

style of Jane’s handwritten oOOs. Chapters alternate between Kate in First Person and

Meredith in 3rd Person with First Person cameos later in the story from Beanstalk, Toby

and Ginny, and Jane’s poems interleaved throughout, predominately between

chapters.

Prior to commencing on my third draft I put my second draft out to 9 readers

and carefully reviewed their feedback. I took the advice of Aronson (2010) and King

(2000) rejecting one-off criticism but taking careful note when two or more critiques

made similar observations. This led me at 3rd draft to focus on narrative structure to

understand why my story was still confusing to the reader towards the third turning

point and climax resolution phase of the story. Upon reading Aronson (2010) I realised

what a monster I had created, which can be described in her model as a tandem

triplicate fragmented flashback narrative with multiple protagonists! In my third draft

I have concentrated on aligning my turning points between stories and working on an

ebb and flow of intensity. Aronson comments that often the modern story is the

hardest to write, in my case this certainly is true with greater time spent revising and

redrafting Kate’s story than Meredith’s.

Readers wanted to know more about the back story of Jane. After some

thought I have purposely left Jane as an ‘enigmatic outsider’ which Aronson (2010)

describes as an antagonist without a voice, instead being described by others

characters rather than further developing their own point of view. In my third draft,

rather than giving Jane a voice of her own outside of her poetry, I have maintained

~ 212 ~

Jane’s enigmatic antagonist role but have allowed other characters to describe Jane

more fully in their flashbacks to give the reader greater understanding of her character

but not dispelling all aspects of her mystery.

At third draft, further development has styled Ursula/Ian into a

mentor/antagonist role which is described by Aronson (2010) as the person in the

story (even when dead) who continues to cause trouble for the protagonist, inciting a

journey and the protagonist to fall in love with them. Ursula has become a more

developed character in the story than was originally envisaged.

Several readers expressed their shock at how the story ends, however all

reported that the story continued to exercise their thinking to a point of reconciliation

after completing the read, which to my mind is a good thing. This story does not have

a happy ending for the characters, although within her own frame of reference,

protagonist Kate would argue that she is whole, in control, and this is a happy ending

on her own terms, though bitter-sweet for the reader. AUT lecturer, Siobhan Harvey

(Harvey, 2015) stated ‘you don’t have to write a happy ending, but you do need to give

your reader resolution and hope.’ In my third draft I have aimed to give the reader

greater resolution and some degree of hope for the future generation. But I remain

unrepentant in that the ancestry between my three generations would make a ‘happy

ever after’ ending, which would be a hollow lie in this situation. Of note, Aronson

(2010) points out that fractured tandem narratives often deal in tragedy. I see that the

subject of happy versus unhappy endings has been long debated in the literature as far

back as 1920. Matthews quotes a Mrs Wharton when he says:

‘This predilection of our playgoers did not imply a preference for comedy, but that on the contrary, “our audience want to be harrowed (and even slightly shocked) from eight till ten thirty, and then consoled and reassured before eleven”.’ (Matthews, 1920 pg 356).

However I am relieved by his final conclusion:

‘But I am inclined to believe that we do not shrink from the bitterest end if that impresses us as inevitable and inexorable, if this bitter end has been preordained from the beginning of time, if the author has been skilful enough and sincere enough to make us feel that his tragedy could not possibly have any other than a tragic termination.’ (Matthews, 1920,pg 362).

~ 213 ~

With regard to the ending of Hanging Out Eggshells, ultimately it is up to the

reader who must decide whether the writer has achieved this thing. Just as Fish’s

death at the end of Cloud Street (Winton 1991) feels inevitable and right, my aim is

that Kate’s death at the end of Hanging Out Eggshells will feel similarly right. Or did

she die? Kate was wearing a life jacket after all and Kerewin was standing by. A sequel

perhaps?

7. Optimising The Environment

“It’s the best feeling: being in the flow, seeing the scene unfold in my mind as

my hands hurry to record the vision. Words pour out of me until WHAM! Pain

jerks me out of the zone with the subtlety of a midnight fire alarm. Hands

cramp – wrists ache – stiff shoulders – cricked neck… do any of these sound

familiar?” (cherylreif.com)

While this section of my Exegesis does not relate directly to the text of my

piece, I argue its relevance to the equally important process of concentrating to

capture well written words in a time effective manner. With a background in

physiotherapy and ergonomics, I believe attention to ergonomic detail and my

conscious manipulation of physical aspects of the writing process has enabled me to

achieve a state of productive writing flow. Fast accurate concentrated writing allowed

me to complete three drafts over 8 months with sufficient time between drafts to seek

critical feedback from a range of readers and additional time to personally read widely

throughout the year for my exegesis. My conclusions are as follows:

WHERE TO WRITE? – I did not choose to write in my usual open plan home

office with phones ringing and other people coming and going. Instead I chose the

laundry in our back garage between my car and the washing machine/dryer. This gave

me a warm, uninterrupted space away from phones with a door that firmly closes out

the rest of my life. I find I’m in good company. Stephen King in his book On Writing

reports he wrote his first two novels in the laundry room of his rented trailer home

with his wife’s portable typewriter on top of a child’s writing desk balanced across his

knees and the door firmly shut (King 2000, Loc 1727). This location obviously worked

~ 214 ~

for Stephen King and it has also worked well for me with minimum interruptions and

maximum “in zone” writing achieved.

Of interest the noise of the washing machine or dryer was never disruptive; in

fact using regular ‘white noise’ to mask any irregular background noise is proven to aid

concentration (Staal 2004). I became so used to the regular sounds of the machines,

when my ‘white ware’, stops emitting ‘white noise’ I would find myself drawn away

from my story world and I would take a micro pause and look around for the next

basket of washing before settling in for a further session of concentrated writing.

WHEN TO WRITE? – My question was how to fit regular fiction writing into a

life schedule which also includes part-time work and normal family life. I read with

interest that Stephen King advocates following a regular schedule. His preference to

spend time in the morning completing 2000 words of new writing, the pm doing other

business and non-business related tasks, and the evening for reading (King 2000, Loc

1688). This is the schedule that I also adopted to good effect. I have found rising early

to write at 5am on days when other planned activities must be scheduled in the

morning has ensured consistent writing time on a daily basis.

HOW TO WRITE? How do I best get myself comfortable and well set-up

ergonomically to prevent the pain and discomfort which gravity inflicts on

unsupported body parts undertaking prolonged VDU tasks and plays havoc with

writer’s flow? My answer is to work in a Stressless chair with my feet raised on a foot

stool, my laptop on my knees with a plastic chopping board between the laptop to

protect my legs from undue heat or radiation. The Stressless Chair allows a semi

reclined position much like a reclined airline seat with the hip/trunk angle at

approximately 120 degrees which is known to reduce the intra-discal pressure in the

lumbar spine, therefore reducing potential for low back pain (Grandjean 1988). This

position also allow me to work with an optimal cervical spine posture when viewing

my laptop screen and limits the effects of gravity by working with my elbows and

wrists supported in a neutral position. (OSH 1996). The proof is in the pudding, I was

able to maintain full concentrations, with no pain or discomfort while completing my

novel’s 3rd draft to 73,000 + words. Yes, I am eager to start over on a new novel and

do it all again, my writing formula is becoming an established and repeatable routine.

8. Summary

~ 215 ~

Witi’s challenge to me has resulted in the completion of my 3rd draft of Hanging

Out Eggshells which I now present for examination as my Thesis for the Masters in

Creative Writing. The process of completing this project has given me confidence in

the planning and crafting of a longer fictional piece, which I aim to continue to develop

to publication standard.

My greatest discovery in my reading for this Exegesis is that the role of women

as heroines in stories is limited. I read with interest the article ‘We need better

women’s stories’. Natalie Kon-Yu, Lecturer in Creative Writing, Literature and Gender

Studies at Victoria University, Melbourne, notes the dearth of prize winning novels

where the protagonist is a woman. She also points out that ‘when women win literary

awards they are most commonly writing from a male perspective and or about men.”

(Kon-Yu 2015). She cites a number of examples including our own Eleanor Catton’s

The Luminaries which has a large cast of men. Similarly, Proulx is one of only two

women to ever win the Pulitzer Prize with The Shipping News where the main

protagonist is a male. Quoyle is surrounded in his workplace by an all-male team of

journalists with woman taking more minor roles in the story as his family members.

Kon-Yu finishes by issuing a challenge, “It’s not enough to publish books by women, we

need to focus more on telling women’s stories.” (Kon-Yu 1915).

Hanging Out Eggshells is an example of a woman protagonist telling women’s

stories. My goal is that this book can achieve publication and in some small way move

the stories of New Zealand women more into the mainstream of the reading public.

~ 216 ~

References

Aronson, L. (2010). The 21st Century Screen Play – A comprehensive guide to writing tomorrow’s films. New South Wales, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Atkinson, K. (2013). Life After Life. London, United Kingdom: Transworld Publishing. Bates, A. (1981). The Bridge to Nowhere. Wanganui Newspapers Ltd, Wanganui: Arthur P. Bates. Bowen, D. (Winter 1995). “The Riddler Riddled: Reading the Epigraphs in John Fowles’s “The French Lieutenant’s Woman””. The Journal of Narrative Technique 25 (1): 67 – 90 www.jstor.org/stable/30225424. Byatt, A. (1990). Possession. London, Great Britain: Chatto & Windus. Campbell, J. (2011). Myths To Live By. Revised electronic copy by the Joseph Campbell Foundation (FCF). (First published 1972). Duff, A. (1990). Once Were Warriors. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Duff, A. (1996). What Becomes of The Broken Hearted. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Fowles, J. (1969). The French Lieutenant’s Woman. London, Great Britain: Johnathon Cape. Grandjean, E. (1988). Fitting the Task to the Man. London, Great Britain: Taylor and Francis. Hennelly, M. (2003). “Repeating Patterns” and Textual Pleasures: Reading (In) A.S. Byatt’s “Possession: A Romance” Contemporary Literature, Vol. 44, No.3 (Autumn 2003) pp 442- 471. Hu, I. (2003) cited in Workplace Interventions for Reducing Sitting at Work (Review) N

Shrestha, S Ijaz, KT Kukkonen-Harjula, S Kumar, CP Nwankwo Conchrane. Database of

Systematic Reviews 2015, Issue 1, Art No.:CD010912.

Ihimaera, W. (2014). The Parihaka Woman. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Ihimaera, W. (2011). Maori Boy. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Jung, M. (1976). The Portable Jung. Edited by Joseph Campbell, Translated by

R.F.C.Hull. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books.

~ 217 ~

Kidman, F. (1987). The Book of Secrets. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Kidman, F. (2005). The Captive Wife. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. King, S. (2000). On Writing. London, Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton. Kon-Yu, N. (2015) http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/276335/we-need-better-women’s-stories

McEwan, I. (2010). Atonement. Electronic Copy Vintage. (First published 2001 by Jonathan Cape. Matthews, B. (1920). “Tragedies with Happy Endings.” The North American Review, Vol 211, No.772 pp 355 – 365. Moriarty, L. (2014). Big Little Lies. Sydney, Australia: Pan Macmillan. Murdock, M. (2013). The Heroine’s Journey. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Boston & London (First published 1990) Nabokov, V. (2012). Pale Fire. London: Penguin Classic, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (first published 1962). Nixon, C. (2013). The Whale and the Virgin. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Novel, poetry in the. (2012). In R. Green et al (eds.), The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics. Princeton University Press. Retrieved from https://networkservices.aut.ac.nz/ezproxy.cgi url=http%3A2F%2Fsearch.credoreference.com%2Fcontent%2Fentry%2Fprpoetry%2Fnovel_poetry_in_the%2FO OSH (1996). Approved Code of Practice for the use of Visual Display Units in the Workplace. Wellington, New Zealand: Occupational Safety and Health Service, Department of Labour. Palahniuk, C. (1996). Fight Club. Sydney, Australia: Random House Australia. Parnell, R. (2014). The Writer and the Hero’s Journey. Morphett Vale, South Australia: R & R Books Film Music. Pattrick, J. (2003). The Denniston Rose. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Pattrick, J. (2004). Heart of Coal. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand.

~ 218 ~

Pattrick, J. (2008). The Landing. Auckland, New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. Proulx. E.A. (1993). The Shipping News. London, Great Britain: The Fourth Estate. Scanlon, J. (2008). Why do we still want to believe? The case of Annie Proulx. Journal of Narrative Theory, Vol 38, No.1, Realism in Retrospect (Winter 2008), pg. 87 www.jstor.org/stable/41304878. Seidel, M. (1984) Pale Fire and the art of narrative support. ELH, Vol 51, No.4 (Winter) pg 837-855. Smith, F, (1988). The Ending of “The French Lieutenant’s Woman:” Another speculation on the Manuscript. Journal of Modern Literature, Vol14: No.4 (Sprint 1988), pp 579-584. www.jstor.org/stable/3831567 Tolkien, J.R.R. (2001). The Hobbit. London, United Kingdom: HarperCollins (First published 1937).

Van der Ploeg. (2012), cited in Workplace Interventions for Reducing Sitting at Work

(Review) N Shrestha, S Ijaz, KT Kukkonen-Harjula, S Kumar, CP Nwankwo Conchrane

Database of Systematic Reviews 2015, Issue 1, Art No.:CD010912.

Welsh, J. (2012). Morning People are Actually Happier Than Night Owls: livescience.com. Winton, T. (1991) Cloud Street. McPhee Gribble, Australia